1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a scanner, and more particularly, to a scanner with an output port connected to a printer or a storage device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Scanners are common computer peripherals that are used for scanning documents and generating corresponding image data. The prior art scanner must be connected to a host computer when performing its various functions. For example, a prior art scanner is typically connected to printer, via a computer, for printing out document image data, thereby achieving the functionality of a copier. Alternatively, the scanner may be connected to a portable storage device, via a computer, for storing image data in the storage device, enabling users in public places, such as libraries or offices, to take away the image data on a digital media. However, as a host computer controls the operations of the scanner in both examples, such functionality is not convenient for those users who are unfamiliar with the basic operations of a computer.
The prior art scanner includes a casing, a scanning module installed inside the casing for scanning a document and generating corresponding image data, and a connecting port installed in the casing for electrically connecting to a computer. When the scanning module finishes scanning the document, the image data of the document is transmitted to the computer via the connecting port. The data is subsequently processed by the computer, and the image data may be stored on the hard disk of the computer or it may be transmitted to the printer.
Portable storage devices typically connect to a computer via a printer port, a serial port, or standard interfaces, such as SCSI or USB. These interfaces are the interfaces that are often used to establish communications between a printer and a computer. If the said interfaces can be built into the scanner, and an appropriate control circuit with an independent processor are incorporated with the scanner to simulate typical computer controlling signals, the scanner could function independently of a computer. Users unfamiliar with the operations of a computer would be able to easily take advantage of the functionality of the scanner. The scanner could operate as a copier, or could be used to store document image data onto a portable storage media so that the user could take away the information in a digital format. Furthermore, the loss of image quality during the scanning and printing procedures can be reduced.
A prior art (R.O.C patent number: 370760) document discloses a scanner with a portable storage device built in to it. The scanner, however, is unsuitable for actual use. Portable storage devices are continually being replaced by new designs. Storage capacity is getting growing, and the associated storage format is changing rapidly. Devices designed by the same company, but manufactured in different periods, are not always compatible. Storage devices with different formats, manufactured by different companies, have even more incompatibility problems. For example, there are at least thirty or forty types of portable storage devices known and chosen by people in the market, such as a 3.5 inch floppy disks, a PCMCIA cards, portable hard disks, externally connected hard disks, LS120 devices, CD-R devices, CD-RW devices, DVD-RAM devices (in more than seven different formats), ZIP drives, etc. Regardless of the type of portable storage device that is built into the scanner, it will soon be superseded by newer devices. As only two or three types of portable storage devices can be incorporated into the prior art scanner, if the user doesn't have the appropriate format, he or she will be unable to store the image data. For example, if a PCMCIA card is built into the scanner, users having a PCMCIA card can store image data from the scanner and take it away. Another user, however, who has only a CD-R as storage device, will be unable to save the image data.
On the other hand, the interfaces of portable storage devices are rarely changed. For example, almost every portable storage device uses a parallel port, a serial port, a SCSI port or a USB port on the computer. If the scanner provides the type of interface that is usually used for portable storage devices, rather than providing a storage device built into the scanner, users may easily connect every kind of portable storage device to the scanner. SCSI interfaces, for example, are used on many portable storage devices. Such an interface could be built into the scanner, enabling users who intend to store image data to save the data on their SCSI storage device. Similar functionality could be made use of the other types of ports mentioned above. In this manner, the ever-changing media formats of storage devices, and the resulting incompatibilities, can be avoided.